The Outback Farm’s 50th Anniversary: Q&A with Cam Olsen-Roth and Kate Conway
The Community Coordinator and Permaculture Coordinator at Western’s Outback Farm sat down with “The Planet” to discuss the farm’s history and the work they do there, all in celebration of its 50th anniversary this past weekend.
By Katie McNabb
Crowds of people gather at the Outback Farm’s 50th-anniversary celebration on May 21. Photo courtesy of Taylor Inman.
Western Washington University’s Outback Farm celebrated its 50th anniversary on May 21 and 22. “The Planet” sat down with two of the farm’s student coordinators, Cam Olsen-Roth and Kate Conway, to talk about the anniversary celebration, the farm’s history and some of their hopes for its future.
The celebration included bird-watching and interactive bee classes hosted by Fairhaven students and faculty. There was also a singer/songwriter competition, a brunch hosted by Outback Alumni and an info fair with some of the Outback partners, including the Queer Eco-Justice Club and the Leadership Institute.
Cam Olsen-Roth
What is your position at Outback Farm, and what does it entail?
CO: “I’m the community coordinator. What that means is I’m in charge of running the social media accounts, managing the community gardens and some of the other coordinators, I help run events; I have a larger duty at home to run the bigger events like the Fall Harvest Jubilee and the 50th anniversary.”
How did you first get involved with the farm?
CO: “In my first quarter at Western, in fall of 2019, I was in the Fairhaven dorms as part of the living learning community. I had to take all these classes with a bunch of other students that were living in the same dorm as me, and one of my classes was there [at the Outback Farm], right next to my dorm.”
“I got to know the farm manager, Terri Kempton, who ran the class. Towards the end of the quarter, I mentioned that I was looking for a work-study position and she said that I should do it for the farm when it opened up. I applied for that position and ended up getting it.”
What’s your favorite thing to do at the farm?
CO: “I definitely love giving tours. Like right now, I’m hosting the Leadership Institute and I gave them a tour of the farm and every Friday, we’ll host work parties just for them.”
“I think that’s really cool because I get to be with the same group of people, and I get to show them all the parts of the farm that I love, and then I get to do what I love.”
What do you think makes the Outback unique and a special place for Western students?
CO: “There’s not a lot of places on campus where you can go and be outside and interact with soil like you can on the farm. A lot of students find their own little niche place in their time at the farm. They could be there because they want to get their hands dirty and just start gardening on their own and get a plot.”
“The farm serves many different purposes other than just being a farm. I think that’s really what attracts students. It’s a great hangout place because people will just sit around and hang out all the time.”
Looking ahead, what are some of the goals for the farm in the next 50 years?
CO: “We have some short-term goals for the farm, such as redoing the contours of the garden beds. We also want to provide more food to students on campus and get main campus to notice us.”
“I think my big goal for the farm would definitely be for main campus to realize that the farm is here. I remember my freshman year, nobody from main campus knew that the farm was here and it was really sad.”
A hand gently scoops up bees from the hives located at the Outback Farm. Photo courtesy of Jericho Leavitt.
Kate Conway
What is your position at Outback Farm, and what does it entail?
KC: “I’m the permaculture coordinator. I’m responsible for managing the food forest and doing a fair bit of invasive plant removal. I also do some ecosystem restoration. We have a delineated wetland running through the middle of the farm, so part of my job is maintaining that space.”
“I think something that has characterized the Outback throughout time is we’re scrappy and always have been.”
— Kate Conway, permacultute coordinator
How did you first get involved at the farm?
KC: “I started by going to work parties, and I really liked it. After that, I ended up working at an organic vegetable farm out at Everson the following season.”
“The next summer, I started working at the Outback as a summer apprentice, then when that position ended I started this one as permaculture coordinator.”
What’s your favorite thing to do at the farm?
KC: “One of my favorite farm memories in the summer is just sitting in the raspberry patch, weeding and just eating handfuls of fresh raspberries. In the winter, eating lunch in the greenhouse is so nice because it’s cold and rainy outside, but it’s usually pretty warm in there.”
What do you think makes the Outback unique and a special place for Western students?
KC: “One of the biggest things that sticks out to me about the farm is that it is run by and for students. At a lot of other universities, the farms are not necessarily student-run, and a lot of the time the produce is sold to fund the farm.”
“At the Outback, we get to do what we see fit, and all the food that we produce goes to students for free, whether that be through the Fairhaven food pantry or other food pantries on campus, or during the summer we have free farmer’s markets. It’s a place that’s really for the benefit of students and the community.”
“There’s also so many different ways to get involved. I think almost anybody could find something they’re interested in at the Outback, whether that be farming, beekeeping, ecosystem restoration, natural building, chicken care or composting.”
Are there any pivotal moments in the Outback’s history that stand out to you?
KC: “Because it was started by students that were moving out of the dorms and just wanted to live on the land and grow their own food, there isn’t a ton of materials that the university has on the farm. It was very much, for lack of a better word, a grassroots movement.”
“There have been multiple attempts over the last 50 years by the university to turn it into a parking lot or construct dorms and there was obviously a lot of student pushback against that.”
“Eventually, the AS [Associated Students] recognized it as this legitimate thing and there was a student coordinator position created, so there was one student being paid to work at the farm. Then they added another coordinator position, and about four years ago, they hired a part-time farm manager, Terri Kempton. Now we have a farm manager, three student coordinator positions and five or so work-study positions.”
“We’re still kind of in this ambiguous state where we’re part of the university and recognized by the AS, but they also don’t really know what to do with us. That’s been a big struggle throughout time is the Outback being this weird, special little gem tucked behind Fairhaven. I think something that has characterized the Outback throughout time is we’re scrappy and always have been.”
What are some of the goals for the farm in the next 50 years?
KC: “The number one overarching goal has always been to increase our access to fresh healthy food as students and make that as widely available to our community as possible. It’s always a goal to produce more, but in a way that is sustainable in terms of the number of people we have working there and the size of the farm.”
“In terms of smaller goals, we want the farm to be more widely used by students and faculty. There’s a ton of great classes that are taught at the farm already, but from my perspective as a Fairhaven student and someone working at the farm, there’s a ton of interest.”
“I know that Terri has been working on a sustainable food systems minor. So it would be a goal to have a way for students to study food and food systems in a more straightforward way, which requires being funded by the university.”
Katie McNabb is a third-year at Western. She’s majoring in journalism and English with a creative writing emphasis. Her reporting focuses on science and the environment.